The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 43

The Dao gazed at Li Jian with his golden featureless face and let out a long sigh. “The yokai was trapped here from over ten thousand years ago. You had not yet been born. It was trapped in the war that caused the Pact of the Realm to come into being. I watched as countless deities and yokai fought each other, devastating the planet. Whether or not the yokai broke the pact first, you still struck him down when I had ordered you not to.” The Sword Deity frowned slightly. “Master Dao, should I let the yokai absorb the innocent souls of this continent without lifting a finger then?” The Dao paused and contemplated his words. “A deity is not allowed to interfere in the affairs of mortals. No matter the reason.”

Li Jian just laughed at his words. “I am not the sword deity anymore. I am not longer a god. I came back down through the Heavenly Gates, and the passageway was opened for me.” If the Dao had facial features, it would have frowned at this. “It is not possible for you to come down the Heavenly Gates.” Li Jian just shrugged. “Then examine me. See if I still hold the Sword Portfolio.” The Dao scanned him with its sight and paused. He could not detect a hint of godhood or the powers of a portfolio. “Does that mean you have renounced your godhood?” He nodded in response to the Dao’s question. “Yes. I have come down the mountain to try and live as a man.”

The Dao folded its arms behind its back and sighed, looking up towards the heavens. “It should not be possible but the Heavenly Gates allowed you to. I designed the Heavenly Gates myself. Its powers are universal law; after all they are an extension of my power. If you were allowed to come down the gate, then you have renounced your portfolio. Li Jian, ever since the moment you stumbled upon the Four Guardians of the Universe I knew you were different. I did not realize how different you would be. It seems that in announcing your godhood and descending down the mountain, you have grown beyond this universe.”

He didn’t understand what the Dao meant, and could only look at it questioningly. “It seems you have transcended godhood by descending from it. How interesting that the laws of the universe work this way. I cannot refute it, I was the one that created it after all.” Li Jian bowed slightly towards the Dao. “Master Dao, I do not understand your words. Please forgive my actions, but I cannot simply let the hope of an entire continent be extinguished. I am prepared to accept punishment.” The Dao laughed a rich harmonious sound that did not match to the level of power the Dao itself held.

“Li Jian, I am incapable of punishing you. It seems that you were able to transcend the law itself. By going down the mountain with the desire of a mortal, you became more powerful in the process. Cultivation truly has its fickle does it not? The laws themselves are iron clad. The concept of infinite exists in this world after all. Please bear in the mind in the future, what if you save the lives of thousands and end up destroying the world over it?” The Dao let out a soft laugh before disappearing, time suddenly restoring back. Li Jian could understand a bit of what he said, it seems that his time on Sword Mountain had caused his powers to change. He had been in the Immortal God realm when he was forced to transcend, and now he was completely unsure of his realm.

Shaking the thoughts about what the Dao had said out of his head, he flew back to where Fu Rong stood. She stared at him in awe and he sighed and put up a finger with the memory replacement spell he had used earlier. “Wait, Li Jian, don’t. I won’t tell anyone of what happened.” Li Jian tilted his head at her. “Sister Fu, I cannot just let you keep your memories. It must be done.” Fu Rong looked at him and suddenly he found her arms wrapped around him tightly. “I don’t know what kind of a being you are Li Jian, but to me you will always be a professor of the Triparte Academy. I don’t wish to forget this moment where you gave me hope above all.” Li Jian found it hard to respond for a moment. Was this warm feeling something he had felt in his life as a mortal? He swallowed the lump in his throat and awkwardly patted Fu Rong on the back. He felt a sudden warmth on his cheek, snapped out of his thoughts by Fu Rong’s lips that placed a gentle kiss on the side of his face. “Thank you Brother Li.”

The news broke out over the Kingdom; the Church had sacrificed its leaders in order to preserve the continent against a stray yokai that had threatened all of those who were there. The news brought many followers of the Church back to its fold, the prayers increasing as the citizens felt safer and understood at a deeper level what the Church was capable of; or so they thought.

“Professor! What kind of a magical spell do you think it was?” Of course it was Shing Hai the niece of the Yao Kingdom General who asked this. In her mind she was already imagining herself vanquishing the foes of the kingdom. Li Jian however tossed a piece of chalk to bounce over her head lightly. “Student Shing Hai, instead of focusing on your studies you are already having fantasies of saving the whole kingdom.” The attitude of the students had changed as well after seeing how capable their professor truly was. The daughter of the Empress Su Lan had a hard time looking at the professor without furiously blushing as she remembered how their human professor had seemingly dipped the Empress in the middle of what was supposed to be a duel, rendering even the witch elf Empress speechless.

“I bet the professor doesn’t need magical spells. The professor can probably punch the yokai to death with a single strike because he is a real man!” Wu Shan smiled at him with admiration, the human student Han Tian unfortunately learning the same habit as the two demon brothers. All three of them sat at their desks diligently, staring at Li Jian and holding out a thumbs up to him every time he looked their way. He shook his head slightly before he stared at Wu Shan the way one stares at a puppy who peed inside the house. A piece of chalk was bounced off of the face of the demon student before he sighed.

“It is something important for you all to know. There are what are known as forbidden spells. They will allow the cultivator to do something big but at the expense of burning out either your own life source or your own cultivation. To sacrifice your entire life’s work at cultivation in order to fulfil one thing. That is the reason why it is forbidden. I would strongly advise all of you to never consider the use of a forbidden spell. Sometimes the consequences of such are so dire that you will not even know the price that you are being forced to pay.” He looked at them each seriously to underline just how destructive the price of a forbidden spell can be. He dismissed the class after assigning them all homework.

Su Lan looked at the professor a bit suspiciously after class had been dismissed. The professor had been declared missing a week before the yokai had struck out at the continent and now he was back as if nothing had happened. He had made up some excuse about some health problems that he had to take care of. She looked at Shing Hai with a serious expression after the two of them had left class. “Sister Shing, I think the professor needs to be investigated.” Shing Hai looked at her questioningly. No matter how strange her words, she was still the Empress’s daughter. “The House of Shing will serve the Royal House of Su always.”

Su Lan nodded and looked back at the professor who was standing casually outside of the elite hall drinking peach tea from his mug. “Our professor, he always looks like he is hiding something. As the future caretakers of the country, we must ensure that he is not an evil being.” Shing Hai nodded but in her mind she was quite confused. Why was the professor so suspicious to Su Lan? They quickly made plans to follow the professor for the next few days to “ascertain his true nature” according to Su Lan’s logic. This of course was also something that had felt righteous and made perfect sense to the Princess but Shing Hai went along with it because they grew up together.

That night, Li Jian decided that he had been thinking for too long about some of the food that he used to eat and decided to go shopping. Flour, salt and a few chicken eggs. That was easy enough. He also got a large handful of fresh green scallions as well. He spent some time looking for a few other ingredients, even sending out his sword spirit to float through the market to find what he needed. The apartment he lived in had a spacious balcony, and so he was able to set up a large metal pan over a large grill that he was able to buy for only a few spirit stones. Apparently it was one where the use of the cook’s spiritual force could affect the temperature of this. He could not be bothered to read the instruction manual that came with it so he just stuffed the fuel part with some wood and sent a spark of fire from it.

He proceeded to mix together the batter with plenty of water and oil, before kneading it together into a thin liquid batter. Nodding to himself, he began to pour the mixture over the now hot grill pan. Lacking the fine skill of the hidden dragons of Traveler Street, the first mixture he made did not resemble much of a circle. He sprinkled on the scallions and stared at the mixture with an odd sense of irritation. “What is the point of cultivation if you cannot manipulate your powers to fulfil your own selfish need?” He thought to himself as he used spiritual force and cut off the unruly sides to create a perfect round pancake that was now cooking on the stove. He grinned to himself and rubbed his hands together with anticipation as the smell of his creation wafted out. He wasn’t able to find the fermented black bean sauce that was used previously so instead he picked up a jar of a savoury sauce that had a hint of sweetness and tartness to it as well that was called “eplem sauce” that the local demons seemed to enjoy. Eplems were a fruit that grew in bushes in what the demons called “stone farms.” He had browsed the shop for quite a bit to find all of these ingredients, his mouth watering as he thought about the taste of scallion pancakes with eggs. Using his hand, he quickly beat at the flames to make them burn hotter.

From the bushes where Su Lan and Shing Hai were hiding, all they could see was the lip licking expression of the professor as he rubbed his hands together. What kind of a sicko was their professor and where had the Principal found him? They had heard that he was in prison before. Su Lan shivered in disgust as it looked as if the professor was beating someone with a look of relish and delight on his face. Her imagination went wild as she imagined the professor having kidnapped a helpless student or a fellow teacher to beat them with a look of hunger on his face. “Don’t tell me he is one of those that is into that kind of play?”